Bugbitten Demonhosts
by Emperor Al-Cygnus
Summary: Fu came to the leaf village expecting to be a bargaining chip, instead she ended up with a friend. How will their lives change with each other to lean on, especially since Naruto may be Fu's only support?
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump. This is no way an official release and is not being created for paid distribution.**

**Also: Nobody correct me on genders please. For the most part I know what I wrote. ^.^**

**Chapter 01**

It was a bright sunny spring day in the Hidden Leaf village. The birds were chirping, the cicadas were buzzing, and children were playing on the playgrounds. All in all, it was for the most part, an average, peaceful day.

"I hate this village." A sunglasses wearing man muttered under his breath. "It's way too hot here." He continued. The man was wearing the flak jacket of a chunin level ninja, though obviously of a different style of the green jackets of the ninja around him. That's because unlike those ninjas minding their own business he was not a ninja of Konoha, with his headband identifying him as a proud shinobi of the Hidden Waterfall village. This man went by the name of Hibiki, and he was involved with currently the most important of stupid tasks embedded to him by the Head ninja of his village.

Babysitting.

He supposed that it was a serious job, given who the child in question was, but it still didn't excite him at all to be escorting the charge from the Waterfall all the way to the Leaf, especially since he was here know and felt like he was burning up under his jacket. He took a quick annoyed glance at the small child who was holding his hand as he continued to walk at a pace they could follow. The caramel skinned, mint green haired, seven year old looked back up at him, a neutral expression written on their face. He knew why. The child wasn't really well liked in the village. Treated as a social pariah and an outcast for being basically nothing more than a living weapon of war, it learned long ago to mask its feelings, because any emotion that may flash across its face, fear, anger, happiness, sadness, might spur the villager's wrath.

Now the villagers weren't stupid, yeah they ignored it, and they called it names behind it's back, and yeah they told their children's to stay away from it, but the adults were usually smart enough not to attack it. It's hard to justify attacking something that looked like a child, though every now and then a group would try and catch it for some sick beating or game but the brat was like an insect: really, really hard to catch. Those that did catch it usually only had about three minutes of whatever potentially violent fun they planned on having before the ninja arrived to arrest them. Yeah not all ninja liked the little brat, that was for sure, but even they knew you don't let people antagonize something that could one day probably wreck a good most of the village.

Sighing, the man turned back ahead, slightly jealous of the child's pretty, loose, thin, breeze accommodating yukata the same color as its hair. It looked a lot cooler than all this ninja gear he had to wear. Finally though they were arriving, at the "Great Hokage tower" a rounded building situated at the bottom of a cliff with four of the leaf village's leaders carved into the side of it in stone to forever look over their village.

Hibiki added the fact that the leaf village was corny as all get-out to his list of issues he had with the place. He sighed with annoyance, letting go of his escorts hand for just a moment to fan himself with his hand before reaching back down to grab the child's hand again…only to find out that it was missing.

"You've gotta be kidding me." He muttered to himself as he scanned over the crowd. What in the actual world? He stopped for just a moment and the kid vanishes without a trace? Hibiki sighed and turned back towards the hokage building. Quickly weighing his options he decided to simply walk-in on time to his meeting. The child was still somewhere in the village, so all the hokage had to do was put out a bulletin to find it or something.

Besides, it was too hot out to be playing hide-and-seek.

* * *

Elsewhere

Naruto was smiling to himself as he walked down the street, a plastic bag in hand. He had snuck out of school easy, and was now enjoying his free time. The adults were ignoring him again, which meant he could do whatever he wanted. He reached into the bag and pulled out a kunai looking at the light glinting off the blade. Today he was going to spend all day practicing his kunai throwing. He was going to show up that Sasuke and become the most popular kid in class.

Well that was the plan anyway.

Naruto stumbled a bit as he bumped into someone who was running, with the two of them falling backwards in surprise. Naruto recovered first, clearing his head by shaking it a few times. He stared at the person he knocked over.

It was a really pretty boy, Naruto guessed. The kid was rubbing the back of his head with his eyes shut in a tight grimace. His hair looked like mint ice-cream, of which Naruto has vowed to never, ever, touch again, and his skin was this weird light caramel-like color. Hesitantly the boy opened his eyes, revealing two orange eyes with no pupils.

Naruto stood up and stretched, his brow furrowed and arms crossed in thought. While it was true that he's seen some tanned people here in the village they were never able to make it to that color. But he knew some people could just look like that naturally, but for the most part they lived in other villages. He opened his eyes to stare into the eyes of the kid he knocked down, only to stare in surprise as the kid picked up the kunai Naruto had dropped and held it reverse-grip in front of his face while still being crouched low on the ground. It was a fighting stance.

This kid was an enemy ninja!

Brief delusions of grandeur of exposing an enemy ninja filled Naruto's mind before he squashed the thought, he had to do something now, to capture the kid and take him in to the hokage. Maybe the old man would give him a headband right there for uncovering a secret enemy plot to destroy the Hidden Leaf village or something. Of course Naruto forgot one little detail.

The kid quickly spun around and broke out into a run in the opposite direction.

"H-Hey! Get back here!" Naruto yelled out, grabbing his bag and giving chase. Naruto had to admit, the boy was fast and ducked and weaved out of alley-ways like an expert, but Naruto had the home field advantage and was easily able to corner the enemy ninja in a dark alley behind Ichiraku ramen.

"Give up, you're surrounded." Naruto said excitedly as his opponent backed up, terrified of their blond pursuer. The runaway gritted their teeth before dropping the kunai and put their hands together in a handsign. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't thought about that. What if his opponent had jutsu, the ability to turn that catra stuff into almost magical attacks? Naruto didn't have any…well he had the transformation justu but that was it. Who knew what his opponent might use against him.

"Secret jutsu: Scale dust haze!" the voice called out before inhaling deeply and blowing hard at Naruto. Naruto took a defensive stance as a gold and bronze cloud of smoke filled the hallway, kind of irritating his eyes and, more importantly, obscuring his vision.

_Shoot I can't see._ Naruto thought angrily to himself as he slowly waited for the haze to clear. _"I betcha he's probably already ran away now. That's so stupid of me._ Naruto berated himself before a certain noise caught his ear. It was the sound of coughing. As the smoke cleared the orange wearing blond discovered one interesting thing.

His target was standing there, holding his throat and coughing a little more of the dusty air out. They must have screwed up their jutsu. Now was his chance!

Naruto charged forward with a battlecry as the person stopped coughing long enough to look up in shock. Naruto grinned determinedly before stepping on a bottle which rolled under his foot and threw his run off. Not one to lose his idea Naruto stumble ran towards his opponent.

_I can't fail now! _Naruto thought to himself in irritation, _I have to show everyone that I'm a great ninja._ "Leaf village," Naruto shouted, preparing the best taijutsu move in his entire arsenal, "Secret forehead," he continued, barely coming out of his stumble as he did so, just a couple feet away from his target.

"JUTSU!" he yelled smashing his forehead into the boys. The result was obvious as they both tumbled to the ground, dazed by the mighty impact. Naruto forced himself to his feet first. "I-In the name of the Leaf Village…" Naruto said unsteadily, wobbling from side to side while his opponent laid on their back spread eagle.

"In the name of the Leaf Village…" he repeated himself, "I've captured you… suspicious person. I shall now take you…to the hokage for trial. Do…do you give up?" Naruto said, still trying to stay on his feet.

"Y-Yes I give-up." The other kid said, still lying on the ground with tears streaming down the sides of his face. Naruto immediately felt a pang of guilt as the person slowly got to their feet and held both of their hands out, palms facing down and wrists close together. Naruto stopped to think for a moment before realizing what he was supposed to do. He opened his bag and fished out some ninja wire and, proving that he paid attention to the important parts of class, tied his captives hands together a couple dozen times so they didn't end up cutting themselves on the thin wire by accident. Confidently, Naruto led the person out of the hallway and down the street toward the hokage tower.

"Look, the thing's got someone." He heard several villager's whisper as he passed by. "Should we let him do what he wants like that?" was also heard, followed occasionally by, "Someone should help that child." Ultimately they didn't do anything though, trusting the ninja in the village to be able to handle anything Naruto was capable of doing. No, what finally caused Naruto to pause for a moment and turn around was the sniffling he heard. Naruto turned around and stared at the enemy ninja he caught, who was very clearly crying.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked quizzically. The boy sniffed in response.

"I was trying to escape." The kid answered in a quiet voice, Naruto shrugged. Isn't that what enemy ninja were supposed to do? Flee in fear of his amazing power. Still Naruto did feel bad for the kid, and so after fishing around in his bag again, handed him a chocolate covered stick.

The boy looked quizzically at the confection before biting it sadly. Naruto could tell though, that even on the inside the ninja was feeling a little better, and so continued on his march.

* * *

Hokage Tower

"You lost your jinchiruuki?" The hokage, a well-aged man in red and white robes named Hiruzen Sarutobi asked slowly. Hibiki nodded nervously. Maybe he should've just looked for the brat himself. Instead the waterfall chunin nodded.

"Yes I did Lord Hokage, I apologize." He said, bowing deeply, almost until his upper body was parallel to the ground. "However it cannot be far. As per our agreement I have brought the jinchiruuki here and was in-sight of this building when it left."

"The Waterfall village cannot watch their own child even with an escort!" Hotaru objected, "Are we really to trust them with a jinchiruuki free roaming their forests?" Hibiki bit his lip. Seven years ago they obtained the child and the power she held through some espionage and subterfuge deep in Lightning country. They had been planning on keeping it a secret, but unfortunately their treaty with the leaf village required them to report all jinchiruuki to the hokage, and defer to his or her judgment on where they should be.

At this rate the Head Ninja of the Waterfall is going to be unhappy that he had to give up their secret weapon to their allies.

"Clearly your village does not know how to manage something so dangerous." Koharu, the other village elder, was quick to add her own two ryo. "Clearly it'd be in our alliances best interests to keep the jinchiruuki here in the Leaf."

"Hmm." The hokage hummed to himself thoughtfully, "Danzo, you've been awfully quiet. What say you?" the identified man, Danzo had his one visible eye closed in thought, and if you didn't know any better, appeared asleep. The one armed man stood up.

"As we all know, the Leaf village is the central pillar of strength to our treaty." Danzo said firmly, "A strong Leaf village benefits the entire alliance. While I do not doubt The Waterfall village's…security," he said that last word disdainfully, letting Hibiki know, yet again, that he's screwed up, "it would be better for the entire alliance that the leaf village be prepared to deploy a second jinchiruuki for defense." The hokage hummed again, taking a drag from his pipe as he thought a little more. Everyone's brought up good points about taking the jinchiruuki, and he had no counter points to argue. He stood up, ready to declare his decision.

"Alright, I have decided that…" he didn't get to finish as a certain seven year old blond boy burst in with a cry of "Hey old man!" Everyone turned to stare at the blond, everyone holding a look of annoyance on their faces…annoyance that turned to shock when he walked in with a captive.

"Naruto…" the hokage said slowly, feeling a migraine coming on, "who is this?" he asked patiently, noting that the Waterfall village escort was stuttering in shock.

"This…" Naruto beamed proudly, "is an enemy ninja. I caught him sneaking around the village."

"Fu?" the chunin questioned. The mint haired child nodded. Naruto looked at him in surprise.

"So your names Fu huh?" Naruto asked in surprise, only to get the same nod in response, "Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki. It's a pleasure to meetcha!" he introduced himself as though he didn't tie the kid up and parade him to the leaf village.

"It appears we've found our missing jinchiruuki." Danzo noted, eyeing the pair in front of him. This might go better than he hoped.

"Lord Hokage." Danzo said, turning back to his old teammate, "I suggest we observe the jinchiruuki for the rest of the day." He announced, surprising everyone who knew him. "We need to make sure that it can properly acclimatize to our village. I also suggest that Uzumaki be its escort for the rest of the day." That actually stunned Sarutobi, but in the end all he did was nod in agreement.

"Hey wait, what's going on?" Naruto asked confusedly. "What are we going to do about the enemy ninja? What if his teammates are hiding around the village?"

"Naruto, this is an important mission for you." Sarutobi said in his usually "Official business only" voice. Naruto straightened right up. "That person you've captured might be moving to our village. I want you to take him back to your school, and escort him for the rest of the day around the village. Understood?" he asked, throwing a signed and stamped paper for Naruto to give to Iruka. Naruto deftly caught it.

"Crystal clear old man!" Naruto said with a salute, untying Fu, only to grab his hand and run off in the direction of the school. Sarutobi chuckled before turning to the chunin in front of him.

"Now then. You will have our verdict by the end of the day. Until then you're dismissed." Hibiki nodded, turning to walk out of the room, before stopping and looking at the Hokage one last time.

"Oh and by the way…Fu's a girl." He said, before he turned and walked a calm measured pace out the office. Sarutobi stared blankly at Hibiki for a moment before chuckling, only for that chuckle to become a full blown laugh.

"Hokage's orders," Sarutobi chuckled out, "nobody tell Naruto." He said, as his chuckling died down. Hibiki meanwhile had another thought roll through his head. A little kid caught Fu? What kind of super ninjas was the Leaf Village making?

* * *

Academy

"And here's our classroom!" Naruto declared excitedly, turning the doorknob and escorting Fu inside to the class apparently already in session. Fu could tell that as soon as he entered he was the center of attention. Then that attention switched immediately to her.

"Your late Naruto!" a scarred academy teacher scolded the boy, only for Naruto to hand him that paper the robed man gave him and salute.

"Orders came straight from the top." Naruto said officially, causing Fu to giggle lightly at his incorrectness. The "Hokage" wouldn't be at the top, it'd be the Lord Daimyo of the Land of fire, known in slang terms as the "Fire Lord." That brought the scarred man's attention to her and Fu almost immediately knew her mistake. She shouldn't have giggled. Now no matter what she did he'd probably attack her. She could look down and he'd know she surrendered, she could look defiant and he'd slap it right off her face, she could apologize but then he'd just 'punish' her. So instead she did nothing, just waiting for the scarred man to do something. Finally he crouched down to her level.

"It's nice to meet you Fu. Why don't you introduce yourself to the rest of the class?" he said nicely, causing Fu to skip a beat before nodding. Hesitantly she watched as Naruto climbed the stands and took a seat among the students.

"Hello." She said bowing lightly, "My name is Fu. It is a pleasure to meet you all." She said slowly, carefully, before looking back up at the crowd hoping to gauge their reaction and prepared an escape plan if the need arises.

That window doesn't look too sturdy if she has a running start.

"Wow he looks so cool!" A pink haired girl shouted after a moment, standing as she did so. Fu was thrown off.

_Wha-what do you mean 'he'?_ Fu thought in shock as the girl's continued to fawn over how "Tall and dark" "he" looked. Fu was speechless. This was the first time someone was happy to see her…and the first time someone so loudly got her gender wrong.

She wouldn't say that out loud though. Correcting the class might embarrass them enough for their attitudes to make a complete turnaround after all. Instead Fu accepted that she'd have to…pretend to be a boy until they figured it out.

"Alright settle down, settle down." Iruka ordered. "Fu, sit anywhere you like." Fu nodded happily before following the one familiar face she saw and sitting down next to Naruto.

Sure their first meeting involved running into each other, a chase, and a head-butt but he was also quick to become friendly and show her around the school. Besides, he kept giving her those chocolate stick things. He couldn't be that bad.

The day went by quickly. Fu had been given a notebook and pencil by Naruto to take notes, which she proceeded to do. Naruto fought some happy looking black haired boy in the sparring circle and got trounced, to which she hesitantly offered a little advice, hoping he wouldn't retaliate at the perceived insult. Surprisingly he asked to spar with her and was able to put the advice to use almost immediately.

Seven more surprising still, some of the girl's continued to fawn over how cool "he" was, much to Fu's embarrassment. After beating Naruto the 'Sasuke' boy Naruto faced asked for a round as well, but though she did better than Naruto, he beat her as well.

With that the school day was called to a close and Fu found herself still in the arena, teaching Naruto about _chakra_ and how to use it to do ninjutsu, as well as acting as his taijutsu sparring partner well into the night.

Eventually the time came for them to head back to the Hokage's office.

"Wow Fu, you sure know a lot." Naruto said happily, Fu blushed and turned away, not used to getting complimented about anything, ever. "Who taught you all this?" Fu looked down for a moment.

"I taught myself." Fu answered sadly. Naruto unfolded his arms and stared at her. "I read books and practiced what they said, and sometimes a ninja would drop a scroll. I'd pick it up and copy as much of it as I could to a piece of paper before they took it back." Naruto sighed.

"No friends?" Naruto asked sadly, she nodded. He seemed to get it. She could tell he gritted his teeth. "Well don't worry about it. We'll be friends from now on. Believe it!" Fu stared at him, eyes widening in shock as he declared this, within a moment tears started pooling around her eyes as she smiled happily.

"O-Okay." She said, smiling despite the tears in her eyes.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. She was told that she was being sent back to the Waterfall village and would be brought back twice a month for a day each for the Leaf Village to see how she was developing or something.

Early the next day she found herself standing in the cold in her thin yukata as the Hokage and the other three elders saw her and her handler off. She stared sadly at the leaf village, the best day of her life already behind her as she turned to begin the long trek back to her 'home', the waterfall village.

"Wait!" a familiar voice yelled, running up to her, past the other Leaf people was Naruto. He stopped just in front of her, panting hard before holding up a book, the same notebook he let her borrow yesterday. "I want you to keep this." Naruto said, Fu looked up at him nervously, she gave it back to him to help him study. He wasn't rejecting her just because she was leaving was she? She'd be back in fifteen days!

"I want you to write anything you want in that notebook." Naruto told her with a smile, "Then we'll try and fit it all in when you get back, okay?" Fu nodded dumbly as Naruto gave her a wide toothy grin. "I'll be seeing you." He said, Fu stumbled over her words, not knowing how to respond. So she simply turned and walked away, flashing him one last tearful smile as she did so. Hibiki couldn't help but roll his eyes a little.

"Danzo." Sarutobi said, just loud enough to draw the old Warhawk's attention, "Why did you reverse your position on keeping Fu?" Sarutobi questioned. Danzo audibly shrugged.

"We obviously aren't using our jinchiruuki properly." He said, clearly avoiding the question, "Let's see what our allies can do with one." He said, turning on the balls of his feet to walk back into the village. Followed by the two other elders. Sarutobi watched though as Naruto continued to wave until Fu was but a speck on the horizon. Then Naruto turned, walking back towards the village with his head downcast.

"Naruto." Sautobi called out, getting the young boys attention, "If you want, I'm sure I can make it so that you and Fu can send letters to each other during those times when he's back in his own village." Sarutobi offered, making sure to refer to Fu with masculine pronouns.

"Really?" Naruto asked with such hope in his voice. The Hokage nodded. "But only if you get a B or higher on your midterms tomorrow." He lied. He was going to help Naruto anyway, but why not make him work for it? Make it mean more?

He wished he could've seen Iruka's face when Naruto scored second highest in the class.

**X  
X  
X**

**Well here we are, another one of my forays into fanfiction. Hopefully I won't get bored with this one. Now a few things:**

**Nobody but Fu and those told realizes that Fu's a girl. It's a reference to the fact that Kishimoto himself didn't know until just deciding one day.**

**This chapter's something of a prologue. The rest of the fic is going to start pre-wave and work its way from there.**

**I don't have an update schedule. Not even sure if I plan to update regularly.**

**I. Don't. Bash.**

**That's all, have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump. This is no way an official release and is not being created for paid distribution.**

**Chapter 02**

Fu, a somewhat tall young woman of twelve years with caramel skin, light seafoam green hair, and deep orange eyes was smiling happily to herself, sitting at her desk inside her little hut of a home situated on the very outskirts of the Hidden Waterfall village. It was the perfect place for her, away from all the villagers who would blame her for anything from their windows getting broken to their mail not being on time. She didn't care about them at the moment; one of her bimonthly trip to the Leaf village was coming up, and absolutely nothing was going to bring her mood down until it happened. Happily she jotted down ninjutsu training as another note of what she wanted to do with Naruto this time. She smiled to himself as she looked the list over. She wanted to go to the ramen shop Naruto loved, practice ninjutsu with him, meet his new team (something that she failed to do last time), and maybe go see a movie or something.

She was almost immediately brought out of her happy attitude by the knocking at her door. She sighed wistfully and stood up, taking a moment to look over her beige tank-top and pants. Her expression morphing from a satisfied grin into a somewhat fake smile, Fu folded the paper and put it in her canister, a big red cross-strap cylindrical backpack she carried everywhere with her before sighing. She'd have to spend the next few days with her new team out on a stupid guard mission, but then they'd be close enough to the leaf village that she could just split off on the way back. She put the lighter than it looked bag on and hesitantly opened the door.

"Hello Hoki." Fu said in a somewhat happy tone to her teammate. The spiky black haired, sunglass wearing, boy crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Still not using the proper honorifics, _insect_?" He asked insultingly. Fu did what she could to keep her grin up to the boy, though inwardly she was trying to glare a hole through him.

"I'm sorry Hoki-_san_." She replied slowly. Fu was not a people person and personally she wished they'd just send her out by herself, away from all these people they called her villagers. Hoki smirked that superior smirk of his that she just hated.

"Come along insect. Sensei's waiting for us." He said with that same tone of voice. Fu followed him out, locking the door behind her before following him back to the village so they could meet their client.

_Two days of travel and guard duty._ Fu reminded herself using it to keep herself from getting too angry at the boy in front of her. _It'll be worth it when I'm in the Leaf village._ She briefly smiled to herself at the thought of the mini-vacation as they dropped down in front of the gates.

"What's got you so happy Fu?" her sensei, and old watcher Hibiki asked with a grin. She scowled lightly at him, to which he responded by chuckling.

"Come on Sensei, you know one of Fu's appointments is coming up," said their third teammate and son of the head ninja, Shibuki. "You know you always seem so much happier for a bit after getting back, you know?" he offered, turning to her with a hesitant smile.

"Mou, Shibuki, I told you not to talk about me so freely." Fu responded lightheartedly while staring at the boy with a small smirk and a single quirked eyebrow. It was an expression she made that he was terrified of, as evidenced by him immediately backing off started examining his equipment.

"Fu stop scaring the poor boy." Hibiki chastised her, of course he did. He was placed on this team, between the hyper arrogant Hoki and the "Insect monster" herself for the sole purpose of boosting his confidence. Just being around them was supposed to make him more confident, 'but that wouldn't work if Fu kept glaring at him' they said. He was the son of the Head ninja and needed a spine of some sort after all. "More importantly, you three can take a few moments to stretch or warm-up or whatever you need to do." Hibiki continued on, as if reciting a checklist. "I'll be back in a few minutes with our client." He informed them, vanishing with a gust of wind.

Fu took a moment to stretch, a legitimate smile on her face as she took the moment to appreciate the warm temperature. It was just the right level to keep warm while not hot enough to cause humidity to be a pain. She would't mind a mission in this weather if it wasn't for her teammates. It's not that she hated Shibuki, not like she did Hoki anyway; it was just that he was so quick to say something like that just to get on her good side because he was _afraid_ of her. It was a sentiment that half the village nowadays shared, and one that she caused herself.

"Maybe she's planning on defecting." Hoki said out loud, right in front of her as if she wasn't there. "I mean it sure would be a total load off our back." He continued, finally getting her to glare at him, so much so that Shibuki, who wasn't even her target, had scrambled behind a large tree to take cover. "Come on Insect. You gonna say anything to defend yourself? Say you're not defecting or anything?" He asked, walking closer to Fu. She made a slight twitch, almost undetectable towards her kunai pouch. She sighed and turned away from him. Hurting or killing Hoki wouldn't be worth it, the rest of the village would just get mad at her for being a team killer. He wasn't even the worst of the villagers who hated her, not since she ostracized the rest of the village anyway.

"Hey, listen to me when I'm talking to you _insect_." He growled out grabbing her by her hair and pulling her head back sharply. She grimaced in pain as she struggled to get her hair free from him, not giving him the satisfaction of hearing her voice, whether he wanted to hear her plead or insult him. Eventually he must've gotten sick of it and with a final tug and a well-placed foot he brought her to the ground, stomach first into the dirt.

"Look at the little bug, crawlin' in the mud." Hoki chuckled to himself, satisfied that he exerted dominance over the "Demon bug" as the villagers had taken to calling her. Instead, Fu grinned.

"Is that all?" Fu asked from her position on the ground, "Come on, it'll take a lot more than that to hurt a _demon_ like me." She heard Shibuki whimper from behind his tree as Hoki's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth in sheer rage.

"What was that!" He marched over to her and gave her a 'swift' kick to the side that lifted her just a bit off the ground and even managed to flip her over once before she dropped back into the dirt. "Who do you think you are you outcast demon bug? You know what, go ahead and defect if you want! It's not like the villagers want you here anyway." With that her turned and stormed off, likely to take his rage out on an 'easier to explain to sensei' tree than her. Fu gritted her teeth as she stood up, chuckling inwardly. Hoki was such a manipulatable idiot sometimes. Fu stood up holding her side where she was kicked, not because he had hurt her but to give him the sense that he did, as well as hide the slowly receding effect of her latest jutsu. Her new defensive jutsu had enough blunt testing for now and she didn't plan on letting him test how it fared against knives. So instead she stood there, feigning a wound until their sensei returned, bringing with him some kind of archaeologist looking guy.

Apparently he was some kind of tea aficionado and wanted an escort to the Land of Tea for some sort of annual festival they had. It took minutes for Hibiki to explain their route in a way that made Fu want to scream. They were going straight through the Land of Fire to get to a port where they'd see their client off by boat. That was fine. What was bothering her was that their route would take them straight past the Leaf village! They'd literally be able to see the walls at one point.

"That's just teasing." She muttered to herself. Still maybe if they completed the mission fast enough she could be at the leaf village a day early and spend a couple of days instead of one.

"So, any questions?" Hibiki asked, glancing over his team. Shibuki looked nervous, likely because it was his first time out the village, Hoki looked confident, as if he could do this whole mission by himself. Fu simply kept her grin. "Alright, then, let's get moving." He said, rolling up the map so they could begin their escort, everyone in a loose formation around the client: Sensei in front, Shibuki to the left, Hoki to the right, and Fu herself to the back. She rolled her eyes as she watched everyone's back. While sensei did 'justify' it, she got the feeling that she was sent to the back simply to make sure she didn't fraternize too much with the client and embarrass the village. Everyone kept an even pace, and when her eyes landed on Hoki, she pulled out a stick of pocky and put it in her mouth to idly suck-on, while she couldn't help to remember what happened that turned her situation from bad to worse.

* * *

_Two years ago_

_Ten year old Fu walked aimlessly down one of the village's main streets. The head ninja had "come clean" so to speak and revealed to her why she was ostracized. Originally, they had told her that the mark she beared across the bottom of her back was some kind of curse mark left over from the days of slavery she would have had if they didn't rescue her. Looking back on it now she wished that was the case._

_Today, the head ninja told her that she was a jinchiruuki, a human sacrifice, and that sealed inside of her was the absolutely dangerous seven-tailed demon Beetle, which in hindsight explained why people insisted on insulting her with bug terms like "Insect". Fu was lost in thought, wanting nothing more than to go home, lay down, and pretend that this was a bad dream. At least before she could blame the villagers dislike of her on being an ex-slave turned street urchin, but now…well they had a right to be afraid now, didn't they? _

_Immediately an even worse thought went through her mind: What if Naruto found out? The Leaf village was her little oasis where everyone treated her nicely, and Naruto was literally the only person truly important to her, being the first to show her kindness, as well as being her only friend._

_But in the end he was nothing but a normal human being right? How would he react if he knew she had a demon inside her? He'd probably reject her, the same as the villagers. Now she trusted him, she cared a lot for him, but she just couldn't risk telling him, it was her secret that she'd just have to carry to the grave._

_Fu was brought out of her more than depressing thoughts as she felt herself lose quite a bit of balance and fell to the ground, barely catching herself before she face-planted._

"_Aw, is the little bug okay?" She heard a feminine voice ask mockingly, followed by the laughs of at least two other girls. Fu groaned, they sounded about her age so she was on her own. The ninja only intervened if late teens or adults bothered her._

"_Don't worry about it," one of the other ones said, "bugs like her just love to crawl in the dirt, don'tcha?" She asked Fu mockingly before the laughter started again. Fu gritted her teeth. They didn't like her because of a stupid demon inside her? That she didn't even want? What kind of fairness was that?_

_Well if they wanted a demon then they'll get a demon._

"_I'm a bug huh?" Fu asked, turning her head to watch them as she made her way to her feet. The three girl's stopped laughing, and Fu noticed that they were all wearing Waterfall headbands, brand new ones too, they had graduated recently then. Hopefully they weren't too much better than her, but what could the school teach in a year?_

"_Y-Yeah you're a bug." The lead girl said, hesitating just a moment. She's never seen the insect try and fight back. The girl then puffed out her chest and took a step forward, trying to look intimidating. "Why, got a problem with it?" Fu felt she had just the answer for it._

_With an amazing quickness she lashed out, catching the older girl off guard with a punch straight to her nose. It wasn't a delicate piece of anything but Fu felt it crack just the same. The girl reared back in pain, both her hands clutching her now bloody and broken appendage. Fu barely noted that a crowd was starting to form._

"_Yeah I got a problem with it!" Fu told the girl as her friends helped her keep her balance. "You better learn not to mess with this demon," she told them all, "because this bug knows how to bite!" She declared, glaring at each and every one of them as she did so. Immediately the crowd started shouting various unkind things at her, some of them throwing harmless but unpleasant things as Fu turned and walked away from them. She didn't care; if they wanted to treat her like a demon, then she'll play her part._

* * *

Present day

"Fu!" She heard her name called, bringing her out of her silent remembrance. Fu blinked a few times, looking around. They weren't under attack, she hadn't walked in to anyone, she must've missed something said.

"Is something wrong…sensei?" she asked, only adding the honorific at the last second. Hibiki shook his head.

"You blacked out for a second, had to check to make sure you were still you." He answered before continuing on. Fu understood immediately. _Who knew when the demon could break out and take over her body?_ She thought to herself, mocking many of the more conservative ninjas. She may not have known what that seal looked like, but that stupid bug wasn't going let out a chortle.

"Come on sensei, she's back there being nice and quiet. Don't draw her out of that." He said with a smug grin, "She might start chirping or something." Fu pinched the bridge of her nose.

_Only three days. _Fu thought to herself. _Only three days._

* * *

Leaf Village, next day

Naruto was sitting down cross legged impatiently, waiting for certain silver haired jonin sensei to arrive. Leaning on the wall across from him was a certain black haired, blue shirted guy by the name of 'Sasuke Uchiha' and a little further down was a certain pink haired, red dress wearing 'Sakura Haruno'. The three of them together made up team 7, and man, were they a disaster waiting to happen.

Now don't get him wrong, Naruto liked his teammates, even if Sasuke got on his nerves for being so 'superior' all the time and Sakura enjoyed being around Sasuke a bit too much. It was just that to him, they didn't really function as a team so much as three people who have a mutual agreement not to get in each other's way.

Naruto closed his eyes and thought for a moment, trying to find any sensible way they could work as a team. Naruto himself had only three real jutsu in his arsenal, the shadow clone jutsu and a pair of wind style ones. Sasuke was best at taijutsu and seemed to have a new fire style jutsu every time they talked to each other. Sakura had….fine chakra control. Naruto sighed again and stood up, stretching as he did so.

"Hello everyone. Sorry I'm late." The voice of Kakashi rang out from above them, the three of them quickly turned to glare at the top of the bridge gate where Kakashi was crouching lazily.

"Your late sensei!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison, both pointing at him angrily. He shrugged lazily.

"Sorry, sorry, I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi replied, flipping over the side of the gate to continue crouching but upside-down. "Now after all of your… complaining and protesting yesterday," Kakashi took a moment to simply stare at Sakura and Naruto, who both only grinned innocently in response "the hokage has given you that C-ranked mission you wanted."

"We're escorting some drunken bridge builder back home, and then were acting as guards until he finishes his bridge." Naruto said, proving that despite spending the entire briefing organizing what ramen he was going to order and when that he was listening.

In his head though Naruto was a little annoyed by the timing. Fu's visit was set to be in a few days and yet he wasn't even going to be there. Hopefully Fu would understand that duty called, and if not then he'd really owe the guy.

"Well that brat listens." The bridge builder, Tazuna said with a new bottle of alcohol in hand. "I still don't think you brats have what it takes to protect me though." Naruto simply glared in response before pointing at himself with his thumb.

"Let me make this clear. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, your life couldn't be in better hands, believe it!" Naruto said confidently, Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You're so full of yourself." Sakura berated, annoyed by Naruto's constant bragging. Tazuna simply shook his head. There was no way this stupid looking kid was going to survive. Hopefully the village won't mind too much when that happens.

"Don't worry; they've all been training hard for this." Kakashi told the builder while gesturing for the genin to begin moving out. "Even if they can't handle the bandits or thieves I'm an experienced jonin. You're perfectly safe while I'm around." Tazuna chuckled hollowly.

"Yeah, those bandits won't know what hit them, I guess." He said nervously, something that Kakashi chalked up to not really trusting the twelve year olds to protect him.

The first day of traveling stayed mostly uneventful as the group walked at a mostly leisurely pace only occasionally interrupted by a few rest stops. They were at one such stop at the moment, Kakashi was reading his book, Sasuke was stretching, Sakura was taking a seat and Naruto was sitting in a tree watching everyone, hoping to be the first to catch anyone crazy enough to attack the bridge guy. Naruto watched with interest as the clone he left down there with everyone else suddenly tripped and stumbled. He barely noticed a slight blur of movement that the clone would have otherwise missed and shifted his weight to a crouching position. Everyone else was too far from the bridge builder. Excitedly Naruto threw himself forward, just as, like he expected, a masked man came out of the bushes, katana drawn and poised to strike at a moment's notice.

The man traveled quickly, making a beeline for the bridge builder, Sasuke and Sakura moved to respond, but they were just a little too slow due in no part to distance. Tazuna looked up in shock, raising his arm in fear before the sword slid completely through a certain person's stomach.

"What the…hell?" Tazuna asked fearfully, looking at the sword sticking through Naruto's stomach and exiting out his back. Naruto, using the last moments of his life, turned to Tazuna and grinned a sly grin before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Oh shi-" was all the masked man had to say before a second Naruto launched forward, almost as if he has somehow been the shadow of the first, a fist surrounded by swirling wind pulled back with Naruto sporting an almost crazy grin.

"You lose!" Naruto said, his fist impacting the guy's jaw, followed by the swirling wind simply exploding in that direction, pushing the poor sap even harder and further back. "I give you the Wind Style: Air Fist!" he declared. Kakashi chuckled.

"Good job on the set-up Naruto." Kakashi said with a simple eye smile as he lazily walked over to the assailant to check his pulse, "No points on naming creativity though." He joked, dragging the, still alive, assailant to a tree for a quick tying up and interrogation, at least, when he woke up that was.

"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke called out, gaining the aforementioned boy's attention with a smirk on his face, convincing Naruto that he didn't know _how _to smile any other way, "Good job with that guy, glad you didn't freeze up." Naruto quirked an eyebrow, Sasuke wasn't that good at the whole complimenting thing, was he?

"Well someone had to protect the bridge builder." Naruto said dismissively, yet his tone carried quite a bit of arrogance to it, purposefully mocking Sasuke for his failure. The Uchiha's friendly "smile" quickly turned to an expression of irritation at that.

"Sasuke, Naruto, come over here. Naruto, leave a couple of shadow clones with Sakura to guard the builder." Kakashi ordered. The two boys shrugged and moved towards Kakashi, Naruto lazily making a cross shaped handsign to poof two more of him into existence to help cover Tazuna.

"Alright, we're going to be going over what you to remember from interrogation class," Kakashi explained, gesturing to the tied up person. "First, what do we know already?" Naruto shrugged.

"He uses a katana and moves fast?" Naruto answered somewhat lamely, Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Be more attentive idiot." Sasuke said, Naruto opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when Sasuke held up his hand, "He's a ninja, judging by the headband tied around his leg, the village seems to be the Hidden mist based on the markings, but the slash through the headband indicates that he cut ties, so he's a missing nin." Sasuke took a deep breath before continuing, "He lacked the finesse of a jonin but still had better speed and stealth than your average genin, so I'd put him at about chunin rank and trained for highly visible assassinations. You know; the kind that's less for removing people, and more of a warning to someone else." Kakashi couldn't help but whistle.

"Good deduction Sasuke." Kakashi said in approval. "I suppose sense you have such a good grasp on the situation, I'll let you attempt to get more intel out of the captive first." Kakashi declared, only to her Naruto's shouts of protest not a moment later.

"Not fair sensei!" Naruto said in a somewhat whiny tone, "I should go first, I caught him!" Kakashi chuckled at that. "What's so funny?" Kakashi crouched down to Naruto's level with a grin on his eye.

"Well, I'm trying to use this mission to help you three click better as a team. Right now, Sasuke's the most attentive, so he's interrogating." Kakashi explained as Sasuke rubbed his chin, thoughtfully staring at the tied up runaway ninja. "You on the other hand are more suited to gauging hostile intentions and reacting accordingly, for the most part you'll be handling the security of the bridge builder." Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and he couldn't help but grin.

"Well as long as you know I'm awesome." Naruto laughed as Sasuke turned back around to face them.

"Alright, he's ready to talk." Sasuke announced, surprising the other two. "Someone go get Sakura and the client."

"What already?" Naruto asked baffled, Sasuke simply smirked.

"Interrogating someone's not that hard when they're already utterly terrified." Sasuke explained in the few moments it took to get everyone there. "Alright," he said, turning back to the captive, "now, you're going to tell us everything we want to know, right now." Sasuke ordered in a hostile tone, glaring at the shaking ninja, "Or else." He added, glaring with such pure, terrifying, unadulterated hate that the man tied to the tree let out a pitiful squeaking sound from the back of his throat.

"There are five of us," the man started, breaking out into a sweat as he did so, "we were hired by the shipping tycoon Gato to stop the bridge builder from ruining his monopoly, four of us are missing-nin from the hidden mist village, I'm the newest member of this group, we're being led by Zabuza the legendary swordsman, the rest of us are chunin and we were supposed to make the bridge builder's corpse bloody. That's all I know I swear." The man said, Sasuke snorted in amusement before practically turning off his glare and looking at Kakashi expectantly.

"What did you do to him?" Naruto asked slackjawed as he carefully knocked the guy back out. Sakura however, turned to Tazuna.

"So you lied about who was after you?" She demanded, sticking her finger straight up toward Tazuna.

"W-Well I…." he started before taking a sigh, "Yeah I did, but I have a good reason. Gato's bleeding our country dry, the entire village pooled this money together and we still could only barely afford a D-rank mission." Naruto sighed.

"So your all going hungry?" Sakura asked, Tazuna nodded.

"People dying in the streets?" Sasuke asked, Tazuna sighed.

"Sometimes of hunger or sickness, sometimes murdered by Gato's thugs." Tazuna admitted.

"Children faring any better?" Naruto asked. Tazuna shook his head. In usison the three genin turned and stared at Kakashi. Kakashi stared back at them.

"Are you sure? These enemies are all chunin or higher, way above your pay grades." He told them, a simple reminder that they were beginners on their first out the village mission. They all shrugged.

"We can handle anything that comes our way. Right guys?" Naruto asked, the other two nodded. Kakashi sighed, amusement was obvious in his tone.

"Alright, give me a moment to write a letter to the hokage explaining the situation, then we'll proceed with the mission." Kakashideclared, causing the three genin to celebrate for different reasons.

_I'll get to face tougher enemies._

_I'll get to help a village in danger._

_I get to keep being awesome!_

**X  
X  
X**

**So ends Chapter 1…or Chapter 2. Depends on whether the last chapter was a prologue or not.**

**Naruto has a small trio of jutsu at the moment, the ever popular Shadow clones as well as two Wind Style jutsus, of which you've already seen one. I have a plan for everyone I've introduced so far.**

**Hoki is a necessary addition, just to give simple voice to Fu's treatment in the village. And as you may have noticed Shibuki's dad isn't dead in this verse.**

**Also, to a certain Guest review:  
Danzo is not a hero, it's just that what he currently wants makes him need to act a lot more 'heroic' than the obviously evil advisor he always seems to be in fanfiction  
Naruto still does not know Fu's a girl after four years. To be fair, she does wear pants instead of skirts.  
The third is not senile, he just did not have to be super hokage decisive and preferred to think things through at a reasonable pace after all his advisors have given input, ya know, like a leader of a country.**

**Read and review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump. This is no way an official release and is not being created for paid distribution.**

**Chapter 03**

"What do you mean he's not here?" Fu asked the old man in front of her incredulously. It wasn't fair. They managed to complete their mission easy, no incidents at all. Once they had made it to the port the client had dismissed them, and in a fit of random kindness (not at all caused at all by her constant fidgeting, scaring of Shibuki, or goading of Hoki throughout the trip) her sensei had told her she could head to the Leaf village whenever she liked. Of course that meant that she took a quick four hour long nap, left a note, and was gone before midnight.

She had done the math, if she left then and ran all night and some of the day, she'd reach a small town that was just an hour's walk away from the village, giving her time to clean up, rest, and prepare for showing up at the village a few days early. (She couldn't have Naruto, _hopefully, _realizing she was a girl while she looked tired, haggard, and unkempt after all.) Thanks to her economic planning she had _three whole days_ to spend in the leaf village before she'd have to go back to Waterfall.

A three days now somewhat ruined by the lack of the one person she wanted to see the most.

"I mean exactly what I said." The hokage responded somewhat irritably at the Waterfall kunoichi in-front of him. It wasn't that he was bothered by her, not at all. It's just that it's been a long day, and he wanted nothing more than take a break that just got a bit farther away due to the fact that she arrived early _by two days_. Now he'd have to write a report to the Head of the Waterfall explaining where the jinchiruuki would be for almost half a week. "Naruto went on a C-rank mission and won't be back for a while." The hokage said, carefully leaving out the fact that Kakashi recklessly let his students continue on the now much more dangerous _A-rank_ mission.

"How long has he been gone?" Fu asked. The hokage sighed. She wasn't going to drop the matter, was she?

"Three days." The hokage answered, Fu sighed. So he was already gone by the time she left out of her village. That's nice to know; at least it wasn't by like a few hours or something.

"Where'd the go?" Fu asked, determination quickly etching itself on her face. "I'm just…curious is all." The hokage sighed.

"Fu, I know you." The hokage started, "I've seen how you and Naruto act. There's a good chance that you're going to run off on your own and try to catch up." At that Fu deflated, possibly at her plan being exposed so easily.

"Well…" Fu started, "according to the agreement, I am _literally,_" she stressed the last word specifically, "property", she continued, finger quoting the word, "of the Hidden Leaf village. Can't you do something cool like send me to back them up? I promise I'll be good." She offered, clapping her hands together and smiling to the hokage with her eyes closed in the cutest way she could think of. The hokage stared blankly.

"Fu, you know I can't do that." The hokage answered bluntly. "The agreement is clear. If I wanted to send you on an extended mission, I'd have to seek agreement from the Head of your village, and trust me, he won't agree." _Or fill out a four page long declaration of over-ridden asset control._ The hokage thought to himself in annoyance. At that Fu deflated again before another thought flashed through her head as the old man clasped his hands in front of his face impatiently. Hopefully she'd get the message and leave to go eat ramen and…do whatever it is she'd do without Naruto around.

"Oh _Lord Hokage…"_ Fu said slowly and as sensually as she could muster. The hokage sighed. Nope, she wasn't going to drop it. Slowly the girl did what she could to sensually remove her cylinder as she sauntered over to the Kage's desk, an unsteady look of determination on her face as she awkwardly waggled her hips with each step.

_I can't believe they wouldn't let me take those seduction classes!_ Fu thought about the indignity of it all as she stumbled and almost lost her balance as she reached the desk and threw herself on top of it, doing her best to lean across the top of it seductively.

The hokage resisted every urge to tell her she looked like a straight boy impersonating a drunk woman. He didn't even bother to tense when Fu grinned and made a hand-seal, she wouldn't be stupid enough to attack him while in arms reach.

"Uh, Lord Hokage." Iruka started in a futile effort, trying to warn the hokage. Alas the warning didn't get too far as Fu completed her jutsu.

_Flashback_

"_And you two stay out of that aisle next time!" the adult owner of the shop said as he literally tossed the two eleven year olds out of his book store. Naruto was laughing the whole way, while Fu just sat where she landed in stunned embarrassment._

"_T-T-Those books…" Fu started slowly, "they were full of…" she couldn't bring herself to say it. She spent all that time ogling at other girls in various states of…undress. Normally she'd be having fun mocking the clerk, but she was just a little stunned and embarrassed at the moment to say anything. Naruto only continued to laugh and yell mocking things at the store as Fu slowly reached up and grabbed at her less than developed body. _

_A small wave of depression washed over her when she realized she hadn't even begun to develop anything like the girls in the book._

"_Oh man, was that your first time seeing stuff like that?" Naruto asked with a smile still on his face as he watched Fu, who as far as Naruto thought, was simply amazed at what girls were hiding under their shirts. Fu nodded dumbly. Naruto laughed some more as he helped his friend up. "Well, that's stage one, now we shall go through stages two through ten before the end of the day. You'll have this jutsu mastered. Fu hesitantly followed after Naruto. Just as her luck would have it, a lot of the other steps were about women too, each focusing on a different part of interest._

_Fu had never felt so self-conscious, and so very worried. As they were thrown out of the last bookstore Fu made a silent wish that she would one day develop like the girls in the pictures._

"Sexy Jutsu: Fu style." Fu said in what she hoped was a sexy tone as she was engulfed in a puff of smoke, remembering when Naruto had taught her the secret to his own personal jutsu. Using it, she transformed into what she realistically believed she would look like in four years.

The now much taller Fu had long firm legs connected to well-shaped hips. Her waist-line was small and not overly so, and led into a very well-endowed chest. She had full, slightly pouted lips and half lidded eyes adorning a perfectly shaped face that she would wear in the future, as well as a large wavy mass of teal hair that reached the small of her back. The only clothes on her was the Leaf village headband adorning her forehead.

Okay, maybe it was a little less "realistic" and more "wish upon a star and a genie at the same time, while praying." But the sentiment was there. Besides, it should get the result she wanted. Indeed, Iruka was already catapulting across the room in sheer bloody shock of her transformation.

"_Please Lord Hokage."_ Fu asked in what she hoped was an alluring tone.

"No Fu." The hokage said calmly in an exasperated tone that was completely opposite of the trickle of blood running down his nose. Amazingly enough Fu pouted normally, and the trickle sped up just a little, letting Fu know that she was terrible at putting on a "sexy" air on purpose.

"Do not worry Tenten!" A familiar voice rang out from behind the doorway, a voice that only told the hokage that his headache was about to get worse. "I am sure that Lord Hokage would never do anything like tha…" The voice stopped as its owner and his team entered the room, likely because by this point the smoke from Fu's jutsu had dispersed, leaving her bare naked "sexy" form spread across the Hokage's desk. The female team member could only feel her eye twitch in response.

To understand why you need only go back a few moments.

_Flashback_

"_The Hokage's not busy at the moment, so he'll see you now if you want." The secretary, some probably chunin ranked kunoichi gestured. Tenten watched as her sensei thanked the woman and continued leading the team enthusiastically._

"_You know…" Tenten started thoughtfully, "I have never seen a male chunin doing that job." She declared out loud. She didn't even notice as Neji slowed his steps to create a little distance. He did 'not' want to get trapped near one of these conversations again._

"_What do you mean Tenten?" Lee asked. He'd already been walking backwards due to failing his objective to walk on his hands to the hokage tower. Tenten shrugged._

"_Well think about it, it's always a girl secretary, like there aren't any real missions for them so they just get stuck there instead." Lee furrowed his massive eyebrows._

"_Maybe it is just because there are not that many other missions to do." Lee offered thoughtfully, Tenten shook her head._

"_Yeah because they keep giving all the good career moving missions to the guys so that the girls have to spend their days as dead-end secretaries." Tenten raved as they continued._

"_Now Tenten that is not true." Lee said, only for Tenten to scoff._

"_Yeah I bet it isn't, if this place were any more against powerful women, Lord Hokage would hire a woman to sit on his desk naked just to look attractive and tell budding kunoichi 'this is the best thing you can do with your life' or something." She grumbled. Lee looked at her incredulously._

"_Do not worry Tenten!" Lee assured her as his sensei opened the door and Lee turned around, the Hokage's office was a strict 'no-backwards' zone after last week's mishap after all, "I am sure Lord Hokage would never do anything like tha…" he trailed off as sitting on the hokage's desk was an unnecessarily attractive and nearly naked kunoichi._

_Flashback end_

"S-See Lee, I told you!" Tenten yelled, gesturing at the naked girl. Lee stared and looked thoughtful for a moment as everyone simply paused trying to figure out what to say. Eventually their sensei, Might Guy, and the man they were sure was the template Lee was cloned off of started walking toward the Hokage.

"You are wrong Tenten." Lee finally declared, pointing straight at the still naked woman. Tenten looked flabbergasted as the woman shifted to a sitting position, crossing her legs and covering herself as she scooted off the table.

"How am I wrong?" Tenten asked, almost demanded and again, gesturing toward the girl. Lee crossed his arms.

"Well first, you said the girl would be naked." He started, pointing dramatically at the teal haired woman, "She is clearly wearing a headband!" Lee declared. Tenten sighed in exasperation as she introduced her face to the palm of her hand; Lee was missing the point again…and probably completely on accident too. They were brought out of that thought when the girl poofed into smoke, revealing a younger boy version of the girl around their age. Displayed across the boy's face was a pout as he slowly picked up some weird canister thing and strap it to his back. "And she is also a he!" Lee added loudly and triumphantly, Tenten grinned sheepishly when the guy glared in their direction.

_He's kind of hot._ Tenten thought to herself with a light blush. Surprisingly the guy staring at her blushed as well and turned his head with a huff, _And he's kind of shy…cute._ She added to herself, only catching the tail end of her sensei's conversation with the hokage, something about an A-rank mission. The guy stared at the Hokage for a moment before casually walking over to Tenten with a somewhat flirty smile on his face. A flicker of light later and he was behind her, holding a knife to her neck.

"Oh, Lord Hokage~," the guy behind Tenten said in a sing-song tone, drawing the attention of everyone present. Tenten had it the worst though, her brain trying to desperately figure out just how this happened.

_I take it back! Not cute! NOT HOT! _Was, unfortunately for her, all she could come up with.

Fu had to admit, this was a vast improvement over the panic attack she felt she was going to have earlier. When her appeal to the fact the Hokage was a man failed for some strange reason, she was pretty sure she was done and would just have to spend the days trying to find any other people from that classroom and hope they were half as accepting and fun to be around.

Now, it must be said that Fu held nothing against this girl, nothing in the slightest, but if the hokage wouldn't listen to reason…

"Lord Hokage," Fu started again, "I apologize that it's come to this, but the treaty is clear. Any act of aggression I perform against the Leaf Village on these trips means that the Leaf village immediately obtains complete possession of me." Fu explained, confusing the genin in the room. "Now, if I hurt this girl then I automatically become a weapon of the Leaf village that you could send after Naruto's team on a whim. We'd both win." The hokage sighed again.

"Fu, what makes you think I would react kindly _at all_ to you viciously harming one of my ninja?" He asked slowly, Fu's face warped into one of confusion as she turned to look at the pink shirted kunoichi she was holding.

"What's so special about her?" Fu asked honestly, a question that only slightly depressed Tenten. "Are you the heiress to any clans?" she directed the comment at the hostage.

"N-No." Tenten answered hesitantly and honestly.

"Any secret kekkai genkai's in your blood?" Fu asked after a moment.

"None."

"Any amazing secret jutsu or special abilities?"

"I…have perfect aim."

At that Fu turned back to the hokage, a confident smile on her face.

"So what's the problem?" Fu asked the older man, "You don't really lose much and gain everything I would bring to the table. It sounds like you'd be trading up." Tenten and Lee both looked at the girl with clearly horrified expressions.

"How can you say that?" Lee demanded, taking a floor cracking step towards the two that almost caused Fu to drop her knife, "Tenten is a valuable part of our team, you could never replace her!" At that Tenten's face turned into one of appreciation as her teammate stuck up for her.

"Sure I could." Fu said dismissively, "I can't boast completely perfect aim but I have a bunch of ninjutsu and taijutsu that come from natural skill and hard-work." Fu explained, not noticing that Lee seemed to get angrier at her with every word. "I'm pretty sure tha-"

"That's enough Fu!" the hokage ordered, and Fu fell silent. She looked at the old man hopefully, and her hopeful expression turned to sadness, "Tenten is a valued member of the Leaf Village and a proud shinobi of the Leaf. I won't sacrifice her just to obtain you." The hokage said, and Fu's mood then shifted to despair as the hokage gave her a calm, cool stare that said everything that needed to be said.

_Put the knife away and let the girl go._

"I get it," Fu muttered to herself, pushing the girl away and throwing the knife straight into the ground at her own feet. "I'm sorry I compared myself to her. A weapon shouldn't compare itself to a person after all." Fu said, taking a small bow and walking out the room, feeling the glare of the green boy on her back. She waited for the door closed before breaking down into a few sobs.

She had always been taught that she was a secret weapon of the Waterfall, and had been expected to train into a proper asset, ready to sacrifice herself for the good of the village. She had always thought that was how all shinobi were. By that logic the Leaf village should have gladly wanted to trade that Tenten for her, especially since the hokage clearly knew of her burden.

Instead her refused the trade, using words that reminded her of the score. Everyone else, from that girl to the Hokage, were all _people _to each-other. She wasn't a _person_ like they were; she was a weapon, a vessel, that's all. How dare she compare herself with a _real person_ like _Tenten._

"Is something wrong Fu," a reassuring old voice asked, Fu quickly wiped her face with her sleeves and looked up to see the scarred, bandaged, one-eyed face of Danzo staring down at her, a pale, slightly pretty boy around her age at his side. Normally Danzo was pretty nice to her, listening to her problems and speaking on her behalf to Lord Hokage. Maybe he could help with her problem.

And so Fu explained her problem to him, one piece at a time, Danzo simply listened quietly and intently, taking in every word as he always did.

"I see, so you want to back up Team Kakashi on their mission? And the Hokage is being the same stubborn fool he always is?" Danzo summarized, to which Fu nodded. "Well, I'm sure that while he has reasons, they can't possibly be the right ones. I shall speak with him." Danzo offered, and Fu couldn't help but grin at him.

"Oh, thank you!" Fu said, bowing deeply as she did so. Danzo hummed to himself as he walked past her.

"Sai here will escort you to a certain place and debrief you on certain other subjects." Danzo said as Fu stood up and turned to watch him. "I will inform you of the hokage's decision there." Fu turned to the boy and smiled, which he…attempted to do back. It was kind of annoying, but oh well, Lord Danzo's shinobi were always a little off.

Besides, Danzo could probably succeed at finding some way to allow her passage. She could play nice.

* * *

**I apologize that this chapter is so short, but now that I can once again write, it took me a second to once again get into the swing of things. The next chapter shall be of normal length. I promise that.**


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